Announcements

Attached with this letter, please find the Preparatory Document for the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has convoked for October 2018 to treat the topic: Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.

As is noted in the introductory remarks, “The Church has decided to examine herself on how she can lead young people to recognize and accept the call to the fullness of life and love, and to ask young people to help her in identifying the most effective ways to announce the Good News today…With this in mind, the present Preparatory Document begins the Synod’s phase of consultation with the entire People of God.”

Therefore, Cardinal Seán is asking for the Pastors and Administrators of the Archdiocese to consult with parish leadership, parishioners and youth on the important themes raised in the Preparatory Document, specifically: Question 2 Evaluating the Situation (and subsections) and Question 3 Sharing Activities (and subsections). Please note: there is a special section for “America” included under Question 2 and Question 1 will be addressed separately through another process (do not address Question 1).

In this consultation process, I ask you to try to address each question in the subsections individually or maybe we could in the next weeks to try to utilize them for a broader discussion and response by meeting in small discussion groups. In any case I encourage you to read the Preparatory Document prior to your offering a response. Attached with this letter is the Preparatory Document in English and Spanish. In addition, the Synod of Bishops has announced that a website will be created at youth.sinodo018.va to offer information, as well as the opportunity for direct response from youth. There will also be consultation efforts offered through the Archdiocesan Secretariat for Evangelization and Discipleship.

So as to respect the schedule given by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, President of the USCCB, please return a summary of your response directly to me by June 30. I will then create a summary with all your responses to be sent to our Vicar Forane who, along with other sources, will create one summary report for Cardinal Seán. If you have further questions, please contact me at the rectory.

You can read the document here and then respond to the questions online via this form.

ARCHDIOCESAN CONSULTATION FOR THE 2018 SYNOD OF BISHOPS ON THE TOPIC: YOUNG PEOPLE, THE FAITH AND VOCATIONAL DISCERNMENT We encourage all parishioners to take some time and read the Preparatory Document for the Synod of 2018. After careful reading please address the questions found in the subsections. We may use these questions for broader discussion and response during the month of June. For this reason, we ask you to go to our website (catholicjproxbury.com) in the next few weeks and read the document. It will be soon available in English and Spanish. If you wish, you may return to the rectory a summary of your response to the questions raised by the document by June 30. After that, a group of volunteers will try to gather all the responses from our collaborative and write a summary that will be given to our Cardinal by July 7. Thank you for participating in this significant consultation.